Emergency Rally in Chicago: #Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine!

In the wake of Trump’s announcement declaring U.S. support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the moving of the U.S. embassy there, the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) is calling for a protest tomorrow, Thursday, December 7th, at 5 PM, at the Federal Plaza (Adams and Dearborn) in downtown Chicago.

This unilateral move is further proof of the fact that Trump and the U.S. are not, and have never been, “honest brokers for peace” in the Middle East or anywhere else.

Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims across the Middle East are rejecting Trump and U.S. foreign policy, and already rising up in protest of this violation of international law and Palestinian self-determination. Palestinians are calling for 3 days of rage, and other people of conscience around the world are joining in.

USPCN and the Coalition for Justice in Palestine, along with Jewish Voice for Peace, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and many others, ask you to join us.

Today, Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and expressed the state department’s plans to begin the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. This gesture comes as no surprise to Palestinians and our allies across the world, who understand it as further proof of the lie that is the peace process (or “deal”) so heavily referenced by the current administration. The deal to be presented early next year is nothing short of a means for allowing Israel to take full sovereign control over the entirety of occupied Jerusalem.

Every U.S. president since Truman has recognized the state of Israel, and the Embassy Act that Trump has now implemented was created in 1995. Since then, it has been in the hands of the president whether to act on the law or postpone movement of the embassy. Just a few months ago, Senate Resolution 176 was passed by Congress (across party lines) to call not only for the embassy move, but also to conceal Israel’s violations of international law against Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem. And we know that Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York worked closely with and pushed Trump into this decision, so politicians on both sides of the aisle are clearly disinterested in promoting justice and equality for the Palestinian people, and only interested in making sure Israel is strong enough to always defend U.S. imperialist interests in the region.

Trump has no respect for international law or the rights of people and nations, especially Palestinians, Arabs, and other oppressed people across the world. He kept this campaign “promise” to the zionists and right wing evangelical Christians in the U.S. because that is his worldview too. He supports the most rabidly right wing zionist Israelis, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continue to steal Palestinian land in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and who want the entirety of Palestine to be controlled by apartheid Israel.

USPCN rejects Trump and all others who think that they can decide the fate and future of the Palestinian people. It makes no difference what Trump or Netanyahu say or do, because the Palestinian people will continue to resist, by any and all means necessary, U.S. / zionist plans for the liquidation of our rights. And the international community will continue to organize BDS campaigns across the world, and to isolate Israel as the criminal, apartheid state that it is.

Peace and justice for Palestinians and everyone else who lives in the Arab World and Middle East cannot be achieved without upholding the full rights of the Palestinian people—Rights of Return, Self-Determination, Liberation, and an Independent State with Jerusalem as its capital. We unite with all the forces of progress in the U.S.—including Black Liberation; Native; workers’, women’s, and immigrant rights; and others—to reject Trump and all his reactionary policies here and abroad.

And we ask everyone in the U.S. to support the Palestinian call for 3 days of rage:

Protest at Federal Buildings and Israel Consulates in all U.S. cities.

Call the White House at 202.456.111 to say NO to Trump’s U.S. embassy move.

Continue to organize BDS campaigns in your communities, and continue to pressure your congresspeople to support the national and international rights of the Palestinian people.